Village Squire, 1980-06, Page 23PEOPLE
Rod Graham of Goderich was driving in
the air before he was driving on the
ground. The 19 -year-old is a full-fledged
instructor and charter pilot to boot for
Western Air Services, out of Goderich's
Skyharbour Airport. Mr. Graham, a Grade
13 student at Goderich high school,
actually learned to fly an airplane before he
could drive a car. At 16, he was taking
lessons and going to ground school, and
before he turned 17, the required age for a
pilot's license, he'd accumulated the 45
hours of flight time necessary. He earned
his license on the day of his 17th birthday.
But "flying high" at such a young age
wasn't enough for Rod, and he went on to
obtain 200 more hours of flight time
required for a commercial license when he
was 18 and last winter, before his 19th
birthday, he received his instructors rat-
ing.
Since Rod had invested $7,000 in
learning how to fly, money earned by a
part-time job at the local supermarket. he
decided to turn a hobby into a career. Now
at Western Air. he flies charter trips for
businessmen during the week and gives
lessons to students. often several years
older than himself. Rod says it isn't usually
his students who are nervous about his
age; it's the charter passengers. But the
young pilot says even the charter pass-
engers usually relax after awhile. Rod, who
usually flies a Cessna 150 or 172 or a
twin -engine Aztec has piloted charter
flights as far as Ottawa and Akron, Ohio.
.fames Roy, the man with the dream who
was founding artistic director of the Blyth
Festival, was recently appointed artistic
director of the Belfry Theatre in Victoria,
B.C. James, who encouraged a number of
playwrights in southwestern Ontario,
including Keith Roullaton of Blyth and
Peter Colley of London, was a firm believer
in presenting new Canadian plays on the
Blyth stage, a policy his successor, Janet
Amos, plans to continue. In Victoria,
James hopes to present a balanced season
with plays from both international and
Canadian repertoires. Since the theatre is a
winter operation, James will begin his new
career in August.
Anne Roy, James' v ife and partner in
founding the Blyth Festival, is also
pursuing an interesting new challenge.
Writing under her maiden name, Anne
Chislett, she submitted a play The
Tomorrow Box, to Theatre Ontario's
gigantic Showcase playwriting compet-
ition. Anne's play was awarded an
honourable mention and will be produced
at the Kawartha Festival in Lindsay this
summer. In the past year, Anne has been
working with the Theatre Passe Muraille
company in Toronto.
Ric Wellwood, CFPL radio and tele-
vision's theatre critic has reversed roles
and taken to the stage himself in a one-man
show on Canadian humorist Stephen
Leacock. The show was first presented on
the stage of London's Gallery Theatre, as a
London Community Players Production.
Then Mr. Wellwood was invited to repeat
the show in St. Thomas as an Elgin Theatre
Guild attraction and then went on to an
international theatre festival in West-
chester, N.Y. Now Eck Talent Associates of
London has contracted to take the show to
the "big city" and Mr. Wellwood will take
the show to Toronto's Harbourfront stage,
June 19 to 22. We wonder how Mr.
Wellwood's fellow critics greeted his move
to the other side of the footlights?
Jennifer Bayley of Bayfield knows how
many points it takes to produce a painting -
and the answer is lots. Ms. Bayley, an
artist who recently settled in Bayfield,
specializes in "stiple" portraits, the art of
using a form of "pointelism" or small dots
or paint, to form a completed portrait.
Needless to say, this style means it takes
countless hours to complete a painting.
Ms. Bayley, who was born in England
and studied theatre design and sculpture at
the Birmingham College of Art,
worked in the commercial art field tor
several years. Now she's returning to clay
sculpting and "stiple" portraiture, after
meeting Suzanne DeClercq, a London
potter.
Jennifer and Suzanne have already
completed a "commission" for an Angli-
can Church on an Indian reserve in the
London area. Jennifer has also exhibited
her own work at the Boardwalk, a studio in
London's City Centre mall and at the
Grange Gallery in Toronto. She moved to
Bayfield last year to begin work on a series
of sculpture for an exhibition which opened
in the Grange Gallery on May 24. The artist
sculptor finds her inspiration in walks
along the Lake Huron beaches and in
chatting to the friendly people on Bay -
field's Main Street. She's pleased to be
living and working in Canada where the art
scene is still very new, compared to the
traditional culture in her native England.
This summer she's hoping to introduce
some of the Bayfield children to the joys of
working with the moist, malleable clay
which can be turned into creative art pieces
by the children's fertile imaginations.
Hume Cronyn, an actor with a list of
credits as long as a country mile, and a
native of London, Ontario, has turned to
playwriting after years on the stage. He's
also returned to southwestern Ontario,
namely the Stratford Festival, to unveil the
results of his new career.
Che actor ana a W eisn journalist, Susan
Cooper, have collaborated on a warm,
human comedy about Appalachian
mountain folk, which will open at the
festival in August.
Foxfire, the play's title, will star Mr.
Cronvn, his wife Jessica Tandy. and actors
Richard Monett atm Brent Carver. 'I he
play is based on the popular series of Foxfire
books which recorded a disappearing rural
lifestyle. The play deals with the conflicts
between the old and new values, with the
old represented by a tough mountain
woman named Annie Nations, who is
challenged by her son Dilliard, a successful
country-and-western star. Shades of Mom
and apple piel
Although Susan Cooper and the actor
started working on the Foxfire project
some years ago, "halfway through we had
a sinking feeling that,what we had was a
mess of porridge." But porridge or not, the
co-authors decided to forge ahead with
their project, even though it meant Miss
Cooper had to follow the actor around the
country, since he was touring in the
Broadway hit The Gin Game.
Hume Cronyn promises Foxfire isn't a
message play- "We just wanted something
on stage that was positive and alive." At
least this time, the actor has had the rare
opportunity of putting words into his own
mouth.
VILLAGE SOUIREIJUNE 1980 PG. 21